Wire Wrap technology used in NASA and Military high stress applications
Wire Wrap technology is still very relevant in high vibration, high stress applications in electronics design. It is used by the Military and NASA for high vibration applications. Applications where the risk of card flex may break trace and solder joints and allow critical components to detach from the board. It is used in creating prototypes for ease of making pin-to-pin connections as well as easy repairs because there was no soldering involved.
What is Wire Wrap, why use this versus a modern circuit board?
- Wire Wrap eliminates the design and fabrication of a printed circuit board. Wire wrapping is unusual among other prototyping technologies since it allows for complex assemblies to be produced by automated equipment, but then easily repaired or modified by hand
- Wire wrap construction can produce assemblies which are more reliable than printed circuits: connections are less prone to fail due to vibration or physical stresses on the base board, and the lack of solder precludes soldering faults such as corrosion, cold joints and dry joints. The connections themselves are firmer and have lower electrical resistance due to cold welding of the wire to the terminal post at the corners.
- Wire wrapping was used for assembly of high frequency prototypes and small production runs, including gigahertz microwave circuits and super computers. It is unique among automated prototyping techniques in that wire lengths can be exactly controlled, and twisted pairs or magnetically shielded twisted quads can be routed together.
Wire Wrapping Services by JSX Technology
